Minutes - 20060516 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Of the consumers in the system currently that had been receiving both services, they had to choose which one to receive after March 20th. Club Nova has identified that a significant percentage of the consumers who were receiving both services are choosing to stay with the ACT team. This would be a significant loss of revenue for the Clubhouse program. This was the request that they approached the County about. They could not have foreseen this. She said that they are trying to find a funding stream that will allow the consumers to continue to come to the Club Nova program, even though they cannot bill and get any revenue for serving them. Commissioner Carey asked if this was going to apply to other programs that have been divested. Judy Truitt said that the other exclusionary service does impact them directly and this is related to day treatment services for children in residential programs. This is the most obvious impact far OPC consumers. John Link said that this all points out the critical issues facing Orange County to provide funding far mental health services. He said that these successful programs have built themselves based on funding streams and service definitions in the past that made functional sense. Now, the State has changed service definitions leaving some people out in the cold, and the question for counties will be how to address these issues. One question he will ask in the budget process is whether to send OPC the maintenance of effort funding in a lump sum or with specifications. Chair Jacobs said that they did not mean to cut Commissioner Carey out of the process, but it was a meeting of the County and OPC staff, and the Chair and Vice-Chair. Commissioner Carey said that he supports Club Nova and they have a lot of struggles, but he would have appreciated being informed about this issue before reading it in an abstract since he is the representative. Chair Jacobs asked if the $80,000 was aone-time expenditure ar if it would become recurring and John Link said that he is recommending this for next year, but there must be same hard decisions over the next few years in terms of how much funding the County can appropriate for mental health programs. Commissioner Carey said that it is naive to think it is a one-time expenditure. He said that when they are dealing with a population like Club Nava, they need to protect them. This is a lifetime commitment. Chair Jacobs said that one of the questions that can be posed to Club Nova is whether they can raise funds to cover the additional expense, or whether this will become a permanent appropriation from Orange County. Gwen Harvey said that the philosophy of Club Nova is a lifetime commitment, but the Board only considers these types of allocations on a year-by-year basis and it is not a guarantee that the Board will view it favorably in years forward. The Manager recommends considering allocations on an annual basis. Commissioner Halkiotis said that yesterday they met with Linda Foxworthy of KidScope and Kate Sanford of Child Care Services, Inc., and they are also worried about this. He said that there is so much going on with OPC and he suggested having a work session before adjourning for the summer to find out what is happening here and to hear all of the concerns. John Link recommended doing this as part of one of the budget work sessions. Commissioner Gordon echoed Commissioner Carey that there should be some method that when a Board member who is already representing an entity that they are included in conversations about their entities. John Link agreed. Perhaps the Vice-Chair could step out or the Manager could contact the appropriate County Commissioner before a meeting. Gwen Harvey apologized to Commissioner Carey for not including him.